Middle Science Fair Projects

Great science projects for middle school aged kids! Try one of these proven winners for your next science fair. Make science fun with a winning project. How about splitting the hydrogen and oxygen atoms in water? Make some electricity in a bottle! Do you know how to protect computers from viruses?There is a great science fair idea in all these topics. The trick to a winning science fair project is to choose a topic you like and find a project to match it. Take a look at these fun science fair project ideas. Start and finish your science fair project tonight! Each science fair project includes 15 pages of easy-to-follow directions to help you create your project step-by-step.

Also included in each project:

Details about the scientific method

List of needed materials

Vital information on how to make your presentation

Details about "What the judges are looking for"

As a bonus, every project includes 16 free original science games that you can play with all your friends!

In addition to these winning science fair ideas, you can choose from over 200 winning science fair project ideas . Every subject is covered including chemistry, physics, biology, computer and environmental sciences, and more. Choose it and print it now; start your science fair project right away!

Middle school science fair project ideas can
come from many places. A good middle school science fair project, for
example would be to make a kaleidoscope. A world of changing color
patterns will enchant you when you finish this project. This would be a
most useful middle school science fair project, because it will continue
to amuse and beguile for many years to come.

Middle school science fair project ideas may fall into other categories. Another good middle school science fair
project could be to make stain glass windows. With patience and care you
may be able to create a masterpiece. This too could be a useful middle
school science fair project that you could use in your house. Middle
school science fair projects can make far away objects appear much
closer by making a telescope. Middle school science fair project ideas
like this may enable you to read a postage stamp from 50 feet away.

Southeast Asian Rainforests

The tropical rain forest is a forest of tall trees in a region of
year-round warmth. An average of 50 to 260 inches (125 to 660 cm.) of rain
falls yearly.

Rain forests belong to the tropical wet climate group. The temperature in
a rain forest rarely gets higher than 93 °F (34 °C) or drops below 68 °F
(20 °C); average humidity is between 77 and 88%; rainfall is often more
than 100 inches a year. There is usually a brief season of less rain. In
monsoonal areas, there is a real dry season. Almost all rain forests lie
near the equator.

Rainforests now cover less than 6% of Earth's land surface. Scientists
estimate that more than half of all the world's plant and animal species
live in tropical rain forests. Tropical rainforests produce 40% of Earth's
oxygen.

A tropical rain forest has more kinds of trees than any other area in the
world. Scientists have counted about 100 to 300 species in one 2 1/2-acre
(1-hectare) area in South America. Seventy percent of the plants in the
rainforest are trees.

About 1/4 of all the medicines we use come from rainforest plants. Curare
comes from a tropical vine, and is used as an anesthetic and to relax
muscles during surgery. Quinine, from the cinchona tree, is used to treat
malaria. A person with lymphocytic leukemia has a 99% chance that the
disease will go into remission because of the rosy periwinkle. More than
1,400 varieties of tropical plants are thought to be potential cures for
cancer.

All tropical rain forests resemble one another in some ways. Many of the
trees have straight trunks that don't branch out for 100 feet or more.
There is no sense in growing branches below the canopy where there is
little light. The majority of the trees have smooth, thin bark because
there is no need to protect the them from water loss and freezing
temperatures. It also makes it difficult for epiphytes and plant parasites
to get a hold on the trunks. The bark of different species is so similar
that it is difficult to identify a tree by its bark. Many trees can only
be identified by their flowers.

Despite these differences, each of the three largest rainforests--the
American, the African, and the Asian--has a different group of animal and
plant species. Each rain forest has many species of monkeys, all of which
differ from the species of the other two rain forests. In addition,
different areas of the same rain forest may have different species. Many
kinds of trees that grow in the mountains of the Amazon rain forest do not
grow in the lowlands of that same forest.

There are four very distinct layers of trees in a tropical rain forest.
These layers have been identified as the emergent, upper canopy,
understory, and forest floor.

Emergent trees are spaced wide apart, and are 100 to 240 feet tall with
umbrella-shaped canopies that grow above the forest. Because emergent
trees are exposed to drying winds, they tend to have small, pointed
leaves. Some species lose their leaves during the brief dry season in
monsoon rainforests. These giant trees have straight, smooth trunks with
few branches. Their root system is very shallow, and to support their size
they grow buttresses that can spread out to a distance of 30 feet.

The upper canopy of 60 to 130 foot trees allows light to be easily
available at the top of this layer, but greatly reduced any light below
it. Most of the rainforest's animals live in the upper canopy. There is so
much food available at this level that some animals never go down to the
forest floor. The leaves have "drip spouts" that allows rain to run off.
This keeps them dry and prevents mold and mildew from forming in the humid
environment.

The understory, or lower canopy, consists of 60 foot trees. This layer is
made up of the trunks of canopy trees, shrubs, plants and small trees.
There is little air movement. As a result the humidity is constantly high.
This level is in constant shade.

The forest floor is usually completely shaded, except where a canopy tree
has fallen and created an opening. Most areas of the forest floor receive
so little light that few bushes or herbs can grow there. As a result, a
person can easily walk through most parts of a tropical rain forest. Less
than 1 % of the light that strikes the top of the forest penetrates to the
forest floor. The top soil is very thin and of poor quality. A lot of
litter falls to the ground where it is quickly broken down by decomposers
like termites, earthworms and fungi. The heat and humidity further help to
break down the litter. This organic matter is then just as quickly
absorbed by the trees' shallow roots.

Plant Life

Besides these four layers, a shrub/sapling layer receives about 3 % of the
light that filters in through the canopies. These stunted trees are
capable of a sudden growth surge when a gap in the canopy opens above
them.

The air beneath the lower canopy is almost always humid. The trees
themselves give off water through the pores (stomata) of their leaves.
This process, called transpiration, can account for as much as half of the
precipitation in the rain forest.

Rainforest plants have made many adaptations to their environment. With
over 80 inches of rain per year, plants have made adaptations that helps
them shed water off their leaves quickly so the branches don't get weighed
down and break. Many plants have drip tips and grooved leaves, and some
leaves have oily coatings to shed water. To absorb as much sunlight as
possible on the dark understory, leaves are very large. Some trees have
leaf stalks that turn with the movement of the sun so they always absorb
the maximum amount of light. Leaves in the upper canopy are dark green,
small and leathery to reduce water loss in the strong sunlight. Some trees
will grow large leaves at the lower canopy level and small leaves in the
upper canopy. Other plants grow in the upper canopy on larger trees to get
sunlight. These are the epiphytes such as orchids and bromeliads. Many
trees have buttress and stilt roots for extra support in the shallow, wet
soil of the rainforests.

Over 2,500 species of vines grow in the rainforest. Lianas start off as
small shrubs that grow on the forest floor. To reach the sunlight in the
upper canopy it sends out tendrils to grab sapling trees. The liana and
the tree grow towards the canopy together. The vines grow from one tree to
another and make up 40% of the canopy leaves. The rattan vine has spikes
on the underside of its leaves that point backwards to grab onto sapling
trees. Other "strangler" vines will use trees as support and grow thicker
and thicker as they reach the canopy, strangling its host tree. They look
like trees whose centers have been hollowed out.

Dominant species do not exist in tropical rainforests. Lowland dipterocarp
forest can consist of many different species of Dipterocarpaceae, but not
all of the same species. Trees of the same species are very seldom found
growing close together. This bio diversity and separation of the species
prevents mass contamination and die-off from disease or insect
infestation. Bio diversity also insures that there will be enough
pollinators to take care of each species' needs. Animals depend on the
staggered blooming and fruiting of rainforest plants to supply them with a
year-round source of food.

Animal Life

Many species of animal life can be found in the rain forest. Common
characteristics found among mammals and birds (and reptiles and
amphibians, too) include adaptations to a life in the trees, such as the
prehensile tails of New World monkeys. Other characteristics are bright
colors and sharp patterns, loud vocalizations, and diets heavy on fruits.

Insects make up the largest single group of animals that live in tropical
forests. They include brightly colored butterflies, mosquitoes,
camouflaged stick insects, and huge colonies of ants.

The Amazon river basin rainforest contains a wider variety of plant and
animal life than any other biome in the world. The second largest
population of plant and animal life can be found in scattered locations
and islands of Southeast Asia. The lowest variety can be found in Africa.
There may be 40 to 100 different species in 2.5 acres ( 1 hectare) of a
tropical rain forest.

When early explorers first discovered the rainforests of Africa, Southeast
Asia and South America, they They were amazed by the dense growth, trees
with giant buttresses, vines and epiphytes . The tropical vegetation grew
so dense that it was difficult to cut one's way through it. It was thought
at the time that the soil of a rainforest must be very fertile, filled
with nutrients, enabling it to support the immense trees and other
vegetation they found.

Today we know that the soil of the tropical rainforests is shallow, very
poor in nutrients and almost without soluble minerals. Thousands of years
of heavy rains have washed away the nutrients in the soil obtained from
weathered rocks. The rainforest has a very short nutrient cycle. Nutrients
generally stay in an ecosystem by being recycled and in a rainforest are
mainly found in the living plants and the layers of decomposing leaf
litter. Various species of decomposers like insects, bacteria, and fungi
make quick work of turning dead plant and animal matter into nutrients.
Plants take up these nutrients the moment they are released.

A study in the Amazon rainforest found that 99% of nutrients are held in
root mats. When a rainforest is burned or cut down the nutrients are
removed from the ecosystem. The soil can only be used for a very short
time before it becomes completely depleted of all nutrients.